Things I’ve discovered in my carry-on (accidentally): a bottle of wine, box cutter, a weed pen, another weed pen, a large Anker battery, more wine, a chef’s knife.

TSA aren't cops.

They have no authority to take a weed pen or detain you for having one.

They can call cops but they can only confiscate items deemed to be threats to a plane and only detain you for the same.

I had the experience once of TSA finding numerous "things" in my luggage, looking at them and clearly knowing what they were, giving me a "you shouldn't have done that" look, putting them back, and letting me go.

Terrorist hijackings were a major reason for sky marshals being put on planes. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine famously hijacked some planes and then blew them up on camera. This led directly to Nixon putting sky marshals on planes.

The whole saga only ended after the Palestinians failed to overthrow the King of Jordan in the Black September uprising, and then traded the final hostages for another terrorist whose hijacking attempt was foiled by the crew and passengers (pilot nose-dived the plane to give the crew and passengers a chance to capture the terrorists).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawson%27s_Field_hijackings

right, like most terrorism they were flashy but ultimately low-impact. the stat given about frequent hijackings is true but does not mean there were attempted or successful terrorist hijackings so regularly.